Tacoma gun shop's owner defends trade

Business geared to victims, he says, despite rifle's link to the sniper killings

By LEWIS KAMB, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Published 9:00 pm, Tuesday, October 29, 2002

TACOMA -- The owner of a gun shop that was the last recorded stop for a rifle used in the D.C.-area sniper killings yesterday defended his business as a reputable firm that aims to provide constitutional options for victims -- not weapons for "psychos."

"If anybody should've been a customer here, it should've been his ex-wife -- the one with the restraining order against him," Borgelt said. "We're a victims advocate. Victims are the people who we cater to -- not psychos."

Borgelt did not concede, however, that John Allen Muhammad or Lee Boyd Malvo obtained the .223-caliber Bushmaster rifle at his store. Nor would he comment on details of the ongoing federal audit that has so far been unable to turn up any record of the sale of the rifle.

But Borgelt also wouldn't rule out the possibility that Muhammad somehow got the weapon from his store.

"He snuck in undetected; under the radar screen," Borgelt said. "That's not what we're about here. If there were a psychometer we could hang above our door, I'm sure he would've set it off."

For the fifth straight day since authorities in Maryland said they had linked a rifle recovered from Muhammad's car to 11 of the 13 suburban Washington shootings, federal agents were at the two-story gun shop near the Tacoma Dome searching through sales records and interviewing employees.

ATF officials in Seattle and in Washington, D.C., yesterday declined comment on the investigation.

At the heart of the gun store audit is how Muhammad or Malvo obtained the Bushmaster, which was shipped from the factory in Maine to Bull's Eye in June.

Investigators reportedly have been unable to locate any record showing that Bull's Eye had sold the gun -- records the shop is required by law to maintain.

Neither Muhammad nor Malvo should have been legally able to buy the rifle from the store.

A domestic violence restraining order against Muhammad should have prohibited him from possession of any firearm. Malvo is a non-citizen and a minor. A check of the FBI's National Instant Background Check System, which licensed gun dealers must consult before legally selling a firearm, should have blocked any sale to either one.

What investigators want to know is whether Bull's Eye did the check, whether the system could have failed to show the restraining order or whether the rifle left the shop in some other way.

Borgelt said he won't know the answers to those questions until the agents are done with their work. However, local authorities said they have verified that the order was entered into the system on March 17, 2000 -- the day a Pierce County court issued it.

Officials also confirmed that the order was still active in the FBI's computer in June of 2002 -- when Bull's Eye received the rifle from the manufacturer, said Tacoma police spokesman Jim Mattheis.

"It was all done right," Mattheis said.

Borgelt would not say yesterday if he believes the rifle was sold to an intermediary or stolen.

The New York Times, quoting an ATF agent it did not name, has reported that store employees have located the box used to ship the rifle from the maker.

"Is that a possibility? You bet," Borgelt said. "But again, that's one of the things that they're looking into, and it would be premature for me to comment about that at this time."

Nor would Borgelt comment on reports that his shop has been under federal scrutiny since an audit two years ago showed that Bull's Eye could not adequately account for the sale of some 150 firearms.

Asked about allegations that his store has a history of poor record-keeping practices, Borgelt responded: "We run a good business here.

"We've built a great reputation, we've got a good crew and we run a good ship."